Pete Hegseth's wife has become a fixture at the Pentagon with no official job and no confirmed security clearance, which is alarming career defense staff and allied officials.

• She sat in on a sensitive meeting with British defense officials, who then held a second, smaller meeting without her so they could speak freely.
• She was on the Signal chat where her husband shared attack plans and flight schedules for strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
• She has near-unlimited access to his office, preps him for appearances, screens job candidates, and pushed to bar critical reporters from the building.
• The Pentagon says she leaves before classified talk starts, but the reporting on the British meeting contradicts that.
• Allies of Hegseth say he wants her along to keep him out of trouble, given his history of heavy drinking.

Outlook: Expect more leaks from inside the Pentagon and growing pressure over whether laws on handling classified information were broken.